One of the most important aspects of the regulation and remediation of radioactive constituents in the soil, or other media, is the accurate and cost effective determination of the concentration of these constituents. Currently, samples are taken on location and sent to laboratories for analysis. This is a costly and time-consuming process.
These environmental assessments will require the measurement of radionuclides that decay by the emission of .alpha., .beta., or .gamma. radiation. The current trend in permissible concentrations of radioactive constituents is toward lower concentrations. This has made it increasingly difficult to obtain measurements on location with portable instruments. The instant invention, with its higher sensitivity and ability to discriminate between types and energies of radiation, is therefore suited to accommodate this trend. It is even more difficult to obtain the concentration on location without expensive and fragile equipment used in a time-consuming process. Hence, there is a need for a rugged, fieldable, low-background, high-sensitivity, portable radiation detector that is capable of discriminating between energies and radiation types on the location of the medium, and on a real-time basis.
This trend also creates the need for measurement of radioactive constituents below that of current regulatory requirements. This is achievable by the instant invention.
When there is a radioactive event or disintegration of an unknown target constituent in the medium to be analyzed, it will cause a number of particles to be ejected at energies specific to the suspected target constituents. It should be noted that the words "particle" and "radiation" are used synonymously within this application.